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Gas storage facility in Saxony-Anhalt
Photo: Jan Woitas / dpa
Germany's largest gas storage operator Uniper has criticized the draft of the planned gas storage law.
Although the creation of a legal basis for appropriate minimum fill levels makes sense, the company said at the request of the German Press Agency.
"However, from our point of view, the regulations in the proposed law will mean that the storage business loses its attractiveness for the participating trading companies." As a result, the storage operators themselves would also be deprived of their previous business basis, which was the use of the storage facilities by the trading companies hang out
»This would jeopardize the continued operation of the gas storage facilities in Germany.«
The energy group Uniper accounts for around a quarter of Germany's storage capacity.
The federal government wants to ensure by law that the operators of gas storage facilities guarantee certain fill levels on four key dates each year.
The specifications are intended to secure the gas supply and curb price fluctuations.
The Bundestag wants to finally discuss and pass the law this Friday.
According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, the regulations should come into force on May 1st.
Specifically, according to the latest draft law, the reservoirs should be 65 percent full by August 1st, 80 percent by October 1st, 90 percent by December 1st and 40 percent by February 1st.
For comparison: on March 18, 2022, the fill level was 24.6 percent, the lowest value so far in the current heating period.
A subsidiary of the German gas pipeline operator, the so-called market area manager, who is responsible for the German gas market organization, is said to play an important role in storage.
In addition to the normal, market-driven gas storage, Trading Hub Europe GmbH (THE) is intended to create an additional incentive to fill the storage facilities early by tendering storage volumes.
If tenders are not enough, the company should also buy gas for storage itself.
According to the draft, storage capacities booked by retailers or suppliers but not used should be made available to THE.
Among other things, Uniper demands that the transfer of storage capacities to THE can also be interrupted again “in order to maintain the flexibility of storage use for retailers”.
beb/dpa
